• 한국학교ㆍ지역보건교육학회지
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• 제20권3호
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• pp.67-82
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• 2019

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to analyze how the different lifestyles between Koreans and Korean Americans have significant effects on their health. Despite being the same race, Koreans and Korean Americans have different health conditions and health attitudes due to the acquired environmental factors such as social-economic factors, lifestyle risk factors, healthcare systems, and medical utilization. It is crucial to examine how the different lifestyle habits between Koreans and Korean Americans lead to various health conditions for establishing an effective health promotion policy. Methods: In this study, a comparative analysis was conducted using the National Health and Nutrition Survey of Korea and CHIS data of the United States in 2005 and 2015 to provide valuable insights when establishing such a policy. Results: The specific research purpose is as follows: First, socioeconomic factors, such as (1)living habits risk factors, (2)health satisfaction levels, (3)disease outbreaks, and (4)medical uses, are analyzed to find the distinct characteristics among Koreans, Korean Americans, and Americans. Second, the three groups --Koreans, Korean Americans, and Americans-- were compared based on their exposure to disease-related lifestyle risk factors related to their body mass index and their general health condition. The research results are as follows: First, all three groups improved health conditions in 2015 better than in 2005. Koreans maintained relatively higher general health conditions compared to other groups: their prevalence rate of chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, and asthma was lower than that of U.S. residents. Second, in regards to health behavior factors, the lifetime smoking experience for Koreans and Americans both decreased in 2015 compared to 2005, while the lifetime smoking experience for Korean Americans increased slightly. The number of smokers for Koreans has greatly decreased over a decade while that of Americans has moderately increased. Third, according to the results of the multiple regression, the general health conditions, which is a dependent variable, suggests that the number of men who answered they are healthy is greater than that of women in Korea, compared to the United States. Conclusions: In conclusion, the acquired environmental factors had more significant impacts on health than the racial factors did. Compared to 2005, the health behaviors and health levels of Korean Americans in 2015 gradually became more similar to those of Americans.

• 보건행정학회지
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• 제10권4호
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• pp.1-19
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• 2000

We have witnessed several kinds of new discourses and practices in health and medicine since the 1970s, such as popular concerns with alternative or complementary medicine, inordinate attention to the promotion of 'healthy' living, rapid resurrection of traditional medicine and ecological management of health. Four structural and situational factors are discussed to underlie these new trends：(i) as 'crisis' in health care of the 1970s was translated into health care reform of the 1980s backed up by neo-liberal political philosophy, the state responsibility for nation's health is being transferred to the individual ；(ii) it resulted from the limits of biomedical paradigm in dealing with chronic diseases；(iii) medico-scientific knowledge of disease is transformed into the subjective discourses and technologies of health in postmodern society ； and (iv) it is deeply associated with the considerable increase in environmental risk perception of health and disease. There are some inherent countervailing forces in these new discourses and practices. First, while they derive from lifestyle-oriented behavioral change, medicalization of life and death is still consolidated in the new trends. Second, inasmuch as new tides are reliant upon science, they. are likely to be remote from techne that means not the practical application of theoretical knowing but a special form of practical knowing. Third, as new discourses and activities accomplished＇in the name of health＇increasingly occupy important strategies in forming the self-identity, they serve as moral apparatus which involves prescriptions about how we should live our lives and conduct our bodies, both individually and collectively. Therefore, two points are suggested to consider seriously whether these streams will succeed in improving the‘healthy’living of all the people. Instead of limiting tile perspective to medicine, healing and health care, a new matrix that interweave welfare, ecology and labor along with them is timely needed for enhancing the health for all. In addition, as the World Health Report fm strongly shows, inequality in health heavily depends upon socio-economic development of a society, and it is not the richest countries that have the best health status, but those that have the smallest income differences between rich and poor.

• 도시과학
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• 제9권1호
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• pp.51-59
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• 2020

With the rapid development of China's industrialization and urbanization, air pollution has become a growing concern. The emergence of air pollution not only affects people's health, but also restricts the development of China's social economy. This paper puts forward specific measures for air pollution control by examining the causes of air pollution and by comparing air pollution status and management policies between Korea and China. Methods of control involve improving the urban environmental management mechanism, spreading awareness of urban environmental management and air pollution management laws and regulations system, strengthening clean energy utilization and urban environmental greening, increasing investment and management funds and more. Through these measures, urban environmental management in China can be accelerated and level of environmental management improved.

• Ocean and Polar Research
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• 제29권4호
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• pp.319-326
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• 2007

Coastal marine ecosystems continue to suffer unrelenting pressures from human population growth, increased development, and climate change. Moreover, these systems' capacity for self-repair is declining with such increases in anthropogenic production of various pollutants. What is the present health status or condition of the coastal ecosystem? If our coastal areas are unhealthy, which conditions are considered serious? To answer such questions, the United States, Canada, and Australia are currently assessing coastal ecosystem health using systematic monitoring programs as well as identifying and implementing management plans to improve the health of degraded coastal ecosystems. To evaluate marine environments, Korea is currently using a limited number of factors to estimate water quality. In fact, we are ill-prepared for assessing coastal ecosystem health because no biologically specific criteria are in place to measure the responses to various pollutants. We should select ecosystem-specific indicators from physicochemical stressors and evaluate the subsequent biological responses within each ecosystem. Furthermore, a set of practical indicators should be generated by considering the characteristics and uses of a local coastal area and the key issues at hand. The values of indicators should be presented as indices that allow understanding by the general public as well as by practitioners, policy makers, environmental managers and other stakeholders.

• 한국인구학
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• 제3권1호
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• pp.5-41
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• 1979

Vast volumes of studies of the medical and public health aspects of fertility and family planning have been published by the various institutes of health related research and university scholars in Korea. None of them, however, have dealed with the population problems associated with biologically and mentally handicapped people. It must be emphasized that the purpose of Korea's population policy should be to improve the quality of the population rather than to decrease its rate of increase. In this spirit, the first report of this study is to identify problems related with mentally and physically less fitted population, and to attempt to offer the possible solutions to the health planners and policy-makers. Several nation-wide surveys of the handicapped people in Korea have been compared. Each survey shows a wide range of difference in the prevalence of the handicaps(see Table 13). In this study, the data on the handicaps are collected by two independent system ; one by the nation-wide survey and the other by the reporting system existing at the Seoul National University Demonstration Health Project. The Chandrasekar-Deming technique was used to estimate the total number of handicaps. The estimates are summarized in the tables 8, 9 and 10. Estimate of total number of handicapped people in Korea is 601, 400 with the prevalence rate of 16.1 per thousand persons. Even if taking a number of conditions which may result in a biased estimate of the total number of the handicaps into consideration, the proportion of handicapped people in Korea has increased in the past two decade as the result of the rapid decline in fertility and childhood mortality, which consequently prolonged life expectancy of persons with congenital or acquired impediment. An increase in the proportion of handicapped people will eventually bring about serious problems of social welfare, medical care, and population qualities from various aspects including eugenics. To tackle the problem, there must be an increased emphasis on the prevention of handicaps from the government and private sector. Based on the amount and quality of data, and from the practical point of view, this study prepared a set of recommendations for the government to strengthen its programs of the preventive activities during the prenatal period and early childhood, early finding from routine examinations, and proper social and medical rehabilitation.

• 보건행정학회지
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• 제12권3호
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• pp.36-53
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• 2002

The purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of intent to leave of hospital pharmacists. The independent variables contain three groups of determinants: environmental variables(job opportunity and external support), psychological variables(met expectations, growth desire, self-efficacy, and positive/negative affectivity) and structural variables (power, legitimacy, job variety, job significance, workload, physical environment, job security, pay, internal support, job growth, and promotional chances). The sample used in this study consists of 252 pharmacists working at hospitals in Seoul City, Inchon City and Kyunggi Province. Data were collected with self- administered questionnaires from Oct. 24 to Nov. 14 in 2001 and analyzed using path analysis. The results of this study indicate that the following variables, listed in order of size, have significant negative effects on intent to leave of hospital pharmacists; met expectations, organizational commitment, job satisfaction, promotional chances, and job variety. Job opportunity was found to have significant positive effect on the intent to leave of hospital pharmacists. Implications for hospital administrators and discussions for further research were suggested.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제56권1호
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• pp.50-58
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• 2023

Objectives: Socioeconomic inequality in metabolic syndrome (MetS) remains poorly understood in Iran. The present study examined the extent of the socioeconomic inequalities in MetS and quantified the contribution of its determinants to explain the observed inequality, with a focus on middle-aged adults in Iran. Methods: This cross-sectional study used data from the Ravansar Non-Communicable Disease cohort study. A sample of 9975 middleaged adults aged 35-65 years was analyzed. MetS was assessed based on the International Diabetes Federation definition. Principal component analysis was used to construct socioeconomic status (SES). The Wagstaff normalized concentration index (CI_n) was employed to measure the magnitude of socioeconomic inequalities in MetS. Decomposition analysis was performed to identify and calculate the contribution of the MetS inequality determinants. Results: The proportion of MetS in the sample was 41.1%. The CI_n of having MetS was 0.043 (95% confidence interval, 0.020 to 0.066), indicating that MetS was more concentrated among individuals with high SES. The main contributors to the observed inequality in MetS were SES (72.0%), residence (rural or urban, 46.9%), and physical activity (31.5%). Conclusions: Our findings indicated a pro-poor inequality in MetS among Iranian middle-aged adults. These results highlight the importance of persuading middle-aged adults to be physically active, particularly those in an urban setting. In addition to targeting physically inactive individuals and those with low levels of education, policy interventions aimed at mitigating socioeconomic inequality in MetS should increase the focus on high-SES individuals and the urban population.

• 보건행정학회지
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• 제10권1호
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• pp.148-173
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• 2000

This thesis is a kind of case report on the managerial difficulties and strategies to overcome them for the rural hospitals in Korea. We examined environmental situations and SWOT(Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat) of the hospitals, and suggested some strategies to improve the hospital business through analysing secondary data and brief survey to staffs and patients at 3 case hospitals. Among the strategies were included establishment of their identity as community hospitals, positioning towards high-touch services rather than high-tech services to improve their competence. For this positioning, patient satisfaction should be emphasized to make rapport with the residents in the community, and a few service areas should be selected and strengthened. Emergency care and geriatric health services are recommended to be covered strongly, because rural hospitals are usually the one and only hospital in the region and rural communities have aged population structure. In addition to these, networking is necessary among rural hospitals nationwide and with local clinics and tertiary hospitals near urban areas. And also, complementary role division with community health post should be developed to lessen the competitive relationship between public and private sectors. To support these strategies, fresh organizational culture should be built up to make hospital staff creative and enthusiastic on their job. Finally, inducement of governmental assistance will be necessary to make the environment advantageous to the rural hospitals.

• 한국학교ㆍ지역보건교육학회지
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• 제16권1호
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• pp.39-50
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• 2015

Objectives: A large number of teenagers are addicted to Internet games. The purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of leisure and family factors affecting internet game addiction among middle school boys. Methods: The data was used from 'Survey on the Online Game and Family Leisure Activities of Youth and Children in 2009' conducted by Korea Youth Policy Institute. Data were obtained from 1,681 middle school boys and analyzed by using the SPSS(version 20) program. Factors affecting game addiction were analyzed by ANOVA, Multiple Regression Analysis. Results: The results of this study revealed that the following variables have significant effects on game addition among middle school boys; psychology disorder about leisure, preference and participation disorder about leisure, father-child open communication, mother-child problem communication. Conclusions: Based on these results, we suggested leisure facility and programs to participate leisure life and activate communication with parents. Finally, limitations of this study and suggestions for future research were discussed.

• 보건교육건강증진학회지
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• 제21권4호
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• pp.35-49
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• 2004

The purpose of this study was to analyze variables associated with smoking and selected health behaviors. This study targeted adult men and women over 20 of age. The sample population was drawn from the national sample, and the samples were chosen from the telephone book. A total of 1,500 cases were collected through a telephone based interview survey. As a tool for this study, a structured questionnaire was developed. the variables included self-perceived health status, and selected 7 health behaviors; smoking behavior, physical activities, eating habit, weight control, alcohol consumption, stress management, and cancer exam. The healthy life practice actions of Trans-theoretical model have been classified into five stages. Smokers were more likely than non-smokers to positive attitudes toward smoking and the impact of smoking in this study. This means that smokers's awareness toward the impact of smoking is very week. Smoking behavior was significantly related to other health related behaviors based on the correlation analysis. However, gender, engaging in regular physical activities, moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages, and receiving a cancer examination were the variables that can explain and predict a person's stages of adopting a non-smoking behavior. Self perceived health status was closely related to other health behaviors. Gender, age, and monthly household income were important demographic variables that have significant relationship with the self-perceived health status. Among the health behaviors, regular physical activities and weight control were significant predictable variables. Similar results have been found in the National health and Nutrition examination survey in Korea. As a result of this study, it was found that among the selected health behaviors, engaging in physical activity was an important variable to increase positive sense of health and non-smoking behaviors. Educational and policy level input is needed to increase awareness and provide chances to participate in fitness activities. To those who maintain exercise, the environmental support and diffusion of knowledge information and education data should be strengthened. To change attitudes toward smoking, more in-dept awareness campaign and education should be provided according to people's different behavioral status. In addition, not only diffusing health education data and delivering knowledge information through related programs, but also environmental support system that helps an individual maintain his/her action is required. Such a support system means settlement of the health enhancement base of school, workplace and community should be carried out, and the policy level support and regular programs should be provided and spread to the unit of community.